


to there and back again

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: #cousyinspace, Aliens, Beaches, Drunken Kissing, Empath, F/M, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Hotel Sex, IN SPACE!, Inhumans (Marvel), Kree (Marvel), Kree Monolith, Maveth - Freeform, Plotty, Soulmates, Star-crossed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-12 01:00:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11726226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Written for #cousyinspace. Daisy and Coulson escape the Kree but are trapped in time and space.Prompts:- Daisy tells Coulson about the time she dreamed about the two of them being the last people on Earth.- meeting telepath/empath aliens who reveal too much- alien beach- tides in the universe- stranded- Star Wars references- universe-in-a-bottle





	to there and back again

When Robbie had told them that plenty of dimensions qualify as hell, they had hoped it might be a slight exaggeration.

"Who knew Robbie was so literal?"

She shuts off the device with a heavy sigh, which closes the portal before the heat from the other side becomes overwhelming.

They had managed to steal it from their Kree jailers, but are still working the kinks out.

"You'd think one of these would lead to Earth," she says to him with disappointment, holding the handle as she examines the settings and buttons on the box once more.

Instead he pauses for a moment, and looks over the barren, blue-tinged landscape, and turns back to her with his hands balanced on his hips.

"You know, I never thought I'd end up back here."

Her eyes follow his up into the atmosphere at the planet looming huge beyond the boundaries of Maveth, surreal in its proportions.  
.  
She sits down on the rock outcrop and starts to study the machine again, review the symbols and buttons.

Probably coordinate-based, but also it alters time, which was one of their least favorite discoveries yet.

Early Kree history was just as awful as you might think it to be, merely a burgeoning imperialist empire.

They hope they didn't do any damage to the timeline. On Earth she thought for most of her life she was human, only to discover she's something else.

But out here, people from Earth are a novelty. They stick out everywhere they go.

It would suck if Kree curiosity about Earth only occurred because they had pressed the wrong button.

It was basically like every other episode of Star Trek, but with actual possible consequences, and she can't think about that right now.

All that tides in the universe stuff.

"At least we have food and water," he mentions encouraging her. "Shelter. And each other."

That makes her pause and blink for a moment and she must be frowning because he starts to apologize for being the one she is stuck with.

"No, no," she interrupts him, trying not to laugh. "I had a dream once. Back on Earth. After Hive."

"That reminded you of this?" he asks, curious, and sits down beside her, props his elbow up on a knee.

She puts the box aside for a moment, and tries to think carefully about how she tells him.

"We were trapped here, in a pod, and I was trying to find a way to get us home. Your leg was still injured."

"I see," he nods at her, listening intently. Reading her guilt-feelings off her face.

"And I just wanted to get us back to Earth, but we...we were the only two left. Everything else was gone."

"Did it have a happy ending?" he asks a bit pitifully.

"I never got to the end," she tells him with a small smile, then puts the device on her lap again.

"Then we'll make up our own ending," he answers to her, like it's a promise.

It's one of the things she loves about him, that he's so hopeful, even when things look pretty bleak.

She loves a lot of things about him.

  
###

  
It turns out the device is not Kree.

It's something much older, that was stolen from something called an Eternal, which sounds pretty serious to them both.

The catch has been finding someone who can translate the symbols.

Because they have to get back to the right timeline, and the right Earth.

They can't just show up in the wrong place or there will be consequences, they've been warned.

And chased. Then warned some more.

The alternative would be to go back to being jailed, but they're responsible adults, not criminals.

_Mostly._

Their new destination seems pleasant compared to their others, but they've learned that looks can be very deceiving.

Like a planet of seemingly mild-mannered highly-evolved empaths that want to feast on the banquet of your human emotions?

Not fun.

Even though, they did learn some things. They're still processing those things in their own ways.

He tosses their bag down on the single bed in the hotel with the lamp that looks like gelatinous plankton lit from within hovering above it.

It seems to change colors at the sudden movement, moving towards the warm spectrum from the cool.

"Mood lighting, lovely," he says pointedly, and zips open the bag, taking a few things out. Checking on the box.

They were only able to get the one room, and once the concierge sized them up, since they can pass for Xandarian thanks to her forgery skills, she finds all the appointments pretty standard.

"There's always the couch," she tells him, motioning towards the seat by the window and then pushing the button to remove the silky plant-like coverings that rustle away to reveal the expanse of golden lunar beach stretching out across the horizon.

This planet's nearest star is yellow, so it's more like Earth than not.

"I'd never ask you to sleep on the couch," he huffs at her.

"I wasn't talking about me," she replies with a lift of her eyebrow, and sees him roll his eyes, and then stare out the window.

"We're here for a reason, Coulson, but maybe we can just take it easy for a few days, huh?" she asks, looking through their bags to finish unpacking.

"Undercover vacation," he nods to her. "I can do that."

"Yeah, but can you do this?" she asks, holding up the tiny swimsuit bottoms.

"Where's the rest of it?" he asks her, like she must be joking, grabbing them from her hands and turning them like he's expecting to push a button and there will be more.

"It was all that was left in the gift shop," she shrugs.

"Let's see yours," he tells her with narrowing eyes, setting his jaw at her, as she lifts the black suit towards him.

It's sort of a one-piece, connected by different loops of fabric, and changes colors when you touch it.

"I didn't get mood fabric," he half-complains. "Maybe they just like the color spectrum and everything changes here?"

"Mmm hmm," she nods in answer.

  
###

  
Once they've both gone into undercover mode, they get on with things.

She takes a sip of her fermented drink, watching Coulson leaning against the bar in his half-tunic and bikini bottoms, talking with the bartender.

It's unmistakably him turning on the charm, and she watches the bartender's tentacles roll and contract as he flirts his way through the conversation thanks to their translating device.

He leaves a tip for the information, along with a smile, and then walks back over to her.

"Well?" she asks trying not to laugh at his smug expression by taking another sip of her drink.

"I told them that we're looking for a real adventure, a little bit of danger," he says, leaning his elbow against the bar suavely. "If you know what I mean?"

"Wow, that sounds like you'd get quite a workout, Phil," she laughs, looking back at the bartender working in many places at once over the top of his shoulder.

"Not like that," he says in a hush, lowering his voice and leaning closer to her. "There's a whole black market for dangerous artifacts around here, right? This place is all about experiences and how far you want to take them."

She turns serious for a moment. "So you want to act like we have something to trade?"

"No, but that's a great idea," he pauses. "Your suit just turned purple. What does that mean?"

"I don't know? That I'm trying to think?" she tells him, pushing the drink away. "There's a black market and people from Earth are a novelty. We've been there before."

"I know, but, we're here now. And we've come so far, I don't think that the universe has got anything left to throw at us that we haven't seen already."

That gets a slow smile out of her, even though she knows it's only partly true, and almost inviting the universe to prove him wrong, and they both watch her suit turn rose-colored.

"I think I know what that means," he says, without saying anything. Just by raising his eyebrows.

She's sure that her face is starting to match her suit, but she pushes up off the stool and stands.

"Then where to next?" she tells him, crossing her arms in front of her.

"I think we just hang out," he says, looking down the shoreline at the rows of hovering umbrella stations with attendant robots. "Wait for the right opportunity to find us."

"That sounds unreasonably patient," she tells him with a sigh, as she picks her drink back up and they start walking towards the beach.

"It's a nice day. The sun's out. I could really use a pair of sunglasses, though," he says.

The sand gel feels warm under their toes and she reminds him that the light on this planet is like a pair of sunglasses. It blocks out the blue light on the spectrum, it's super-relaxing.

"That's the G-man in you talking," she goes on, gesturing at some of the other tourists, none of whom have sunglasses. She's learned not to point. Never point when you're not on Earth.

"If we had Lola, we could go for a ride, scope the lay of the land out from above. Get a couple of space burgers."

He's being nostalgic, because he misses his Earth stuff. She misses Lola, too.

But she already knows from their empath encounter, that his most favorite thing is here.

She only wonders whether if her knowing it has changed everything.

 

###

 

"I'm getting a little tired of everyone in space getting inside my head."

It turns out their contact is a cylinder-shaped silicone-based life form that has been alive for eons and only speaks via telepathy.

The Gix asks in their heads to see the box, and when they take it out of the bag, they get washed with both the shock and revulsion of their host, who quickly apologizes.

Then gets annoyed. It wants to know why they brought it here, and who sent them.

As they explain that they're just trying to get home, to the right spacetime, they notice other forms appear around the edges of the room.

"You mean no harm, but you must destroy this device," they are warned.

"No one wanted it destroyed when the Kree had it," Coulson frowns back. "And used it to imprison people. Without trial."

"People who break universal laws," the Gix reminds him.

"Not on purpose. We were trying to save it and, okay, maybe made some mistakes along the way," Coulson admits, a little too loudly in their heads, and Daisy puts a hand on his arm.

"The Kree do many things in secret, they are excellent appropriators. Their Inhuman form was banned in every galaxy."

"This Inhuman form would like to get back to Earth and have her and her people never be bothered by the Kree again."

"Then you should destroy the device. Find another way home."

"We'll destroy it as soon as we get home," Coulson interrupts. "Our organization has a way of being able to lose things so others can't find them."

"Except when they do," she reminds him. "Like, every 100 years or so, give or take." Then he purses his lips at her as she continues. "We wouldn't even have any idea about how to destroy this thing."

"Your abilities, they go far beyond the seismic," he tells her as she stares at his faceless, glowing cylinder.

Coulson swallows, and looks at her seriously, like he's looking for something new.

"Frequencies, like the portal to Maveth," she says, put on the spot. "Is that what you mean?"

"Your people call it quantum."

"And if we destroy this, there are other ways back to Earth?" she asks.

"Through the Soul Gem, like him," the Gix says about Coulson.

"Although, I wouldn't go looking for that right now. However, I must know more about this Princess Leia."

  
###

  
"We need another Monolith," she tells him. "We could go back to Maveth, I could-"

"Doing that on your own? Without some kind of amplification? Do you realize what that could do to you?"

It's cool now, and the golden spectrum of the sun is blocked by a shield in the atmosphere, making everything turn blue, and the tides move in and out softly with an evening breeze.

The cool water even touches their feet as they sit on the beach.

"You know we have to destroy that device, Coulson."

They both know it, but it's been this thing they've pinned their hopes on, it's been both dangerous but given them a sense of freedom to move about as strangers in strange lands.

"I didn't come all this way to lose you again," he says, drawing patterns into the gel-sand as the water fills it in.

She knew he would say that, but hearing him saying it out loud in his own words means a lot. She knows that he's afraid of losing her. That it's almost an existential fear, more important to him than his own life.

It means so much, and still. she's not sure exactly what to do with that.

"What is the Soul Gem, what was that about?" she asks. The reference doesn't ring any bells for her.

"He was talking about how I died, then came back. The stone in Loki's staff, it must be some kind of portal. I'm not sure what else it means about me."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she tells him, touching her hand to his arm. "Does this all remind you of Project: TAHITI?" she wonders, then feels terrible for not connecting the dots sooner.

"No," he shakes his head, after thinking about it, meeting her eyes. "You're here."

"You know," she grins at him, looking at where his hand has slipped over hers. "We've been across time and the universe together. All because of that box."

"It has to be more than that, Daisy. I feel like a fool even saying it, but from the moment I met you-"

"Why do you feel like a fool saying it?" she interrupts. "I already know-"

"I know, but I never told you. Someone else told you for me. I don't know that I would've ever had the courage to. Or that I should have."

She never wanted to name it, either, because then it could be something else taken away from her. That he would be added to the trail of bodies that followed her all of her life.

"I can't lose you, either. But I know you trust me. I can get us back home."

"Like in your dream?"

"The box," she says, sitting up straighter. "It was in my dream."

"Tell me more about it."

  
###

  
She tells him more about it over drinks.

Then she laughs later as he fumbles with the genetic lock on the door, because his hands are too busy.

His eyes keep glancing at the different colors her suit is changing, as he keeps finding more creative ways to kiss her modestly in the hallway as guests of all kinds pass by.

Both a little drunk on the green-colored cocktails with the tiny decorations they've shared all night.

"Inside," she finally orders, pushing him away a little.

"Okay," he says with a dirty grin, and slides his fingers up against the lock long enough for it to read them.

The door slides open and they get through it only to stop and notice all of the walls are covered in some kind of floral array.

"Pretty," she says, as he shuts the door, then she pushes him against the wall near the entrance, staring at his mouth before opening it up under hers.

He smiles like he knows the remark was just as much for him as their surroundings.

They just needed a little bit more privacy, even though the drinks and the music and the conversation in the bar lead the way.

His whole body feels like it's humming trapped between her and the wall, while she kisses him the way she's always wanted to explore him, to get beneath the surface.

The wall seems to move with them, the flowers getting more vibrant and matching the intensity between them, as he groans and slips his tongue up against hers, his hands land impatiently on her hips.

She helps him pull the tunic up over his head and toss it to the side, and he tries to figure out the loops on her swimsuit while his mouth moves across her neck and her shoulder.

Finally, he just gives up in frustration and asks her please, and then steps back towards the bed as she takes it off, pulling the bands up and over her head in succession until she can step out of it.

Before she lets go of it, she notices the bright red color and flushes slightly as she drops it then watches him take off the tiny bit of clothing he has left and do the same, not that it was hiding very much from her.

Coulson is nice looking even without the suits, a curiosity she was never able to fully let go of. Like so many things about him.

He lets her make the next move, like he wants to be sure that this is what she wants, but she comes to him on the bed, touches her fingers against his face and then guides his hand to her body, as she leans him back onto the bed and covers him with kisses and her body.

It doesn't take him long before they're moving together, his right hand caressing her like he's trying to commit to everything by touch, his mouth licking at her and then drinking in the sounds as she makes them between kisses.

His hands thread through her hair and then his thumb against her cheek, her bottom lip, as he tells her, again, she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

Fingers slip between them both, as the light above the bed has gone from pink, to a deep red, bathing the room in its light.

The temperature also shifts; pleasant, warm, and even a little damp.

He watches from beneath her as an orgasm washes over her, gooseflesh on her red-tinted skin shimmering in the light.

His name slips from between her lips.

 

  
###

  
"There it is," she says to him, and sets the controls and the portal opens to a familiar scene.

The backdrop of the beach is behind them, although it's a remote area so they won't be discovered.

A doorway to Maveth opened, using the same stolen technology that created Monolith, all in the box held in her hand.

He stretches out his fingers towards her, and she takes them, wrapping hers around his.

"It's okay," he tells her. "We'll make our own future. Together."

She smiles at him as they step through the portal.


End file.
